the entire scenario playing out is the fiscal cliff ends up being bullish no matter what. spending cuts makes bonds rise, yields fall and making stocks paradoxically even more attractive. they become the new bonds. >> alan, can you tell from option activity which way the markets are betting right now, presuming that not going over the fiscal cliff would be positive for stocks and going over the cliff would be negative? what's the market betting on right now? >> well, i won't even make that presumption because we don't focus on what the event is. we focus on how the market is going to react. the vix has increased a little over the last week or so, but it's still at a historically low level. i think i'm very encouraged by the price action we've seen where we made this bottom and followed through last week, which is key, and we're holding strong this week. i i think the key for the market is to follow the dollar. we're below 80. that can really add another boost to the markets over the longer term. that's positive for corporations to get some more growth out of this overall s